Severe thunderstorms with torrential rains and a possible tornado hit southeast Texas overnight, killing two people, flooding roads and shutting down numerous schools Monday.As much as 10 inches of rain fell in the Houston-Galveston area. More rain is expected across Texas on Monday, with the possibility of damaging winds and flooding, the National Weather Service said.Two women were found dead in a sport-utility vehicle on a heavily flooded roadway in Houston Monday morning. A police spokesman didn't know the extent of the flooding, but broadcast reports said the SUV was in 8 feet of water.South of Houston, as many as 20 homes were damaged when a suspected tornado roared through Magnolia Beach before daybreak, Calhoun County Sheriff B.B. Browning said. The only injury reported in the small community 75 miles northeast of Corpus Christi was a cut thumb a man suffered from flying glass, he said.... http://www.usatoday.com

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly delivered a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, saying he is inspired by Satan. Speaking to a group of supporters, Mr Ahmadinejad said he himself had inspirational links to God, Iranian media reports. He was talking to supporters at a mosque in the capital Tehran. The reports come as Iran is facing the prospect of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme. The president has been making light of the risk of any confrontation with the outside world. According to the Iranian media, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had inspirational links to God, and went on to say that if you were a true believer, God would show you miracles. Then the Iranian president said Mr Bush was similar to him. According to Mr Ahmadinejad, the US president also receives inspiration - but it is from Satan. He repeated: "Satan inspires Mr Bush."...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6055834.stm

Officials began inspecting bridges and roads across Hawaii early Monday following the strongest earthquake to rattle the islands in more than two decades, a 6.6-magnitude quake that caused blackouts and landslides but no reported fatalities. At least one stretch of road leading to a bridge near the earthquake's epicenter on the Big Island collapsed, Civil Defense Agency spokesman Dave Curtis said Monday. Several other roads on the Big Island were closed by mudslides, debris and boulders, but most were still passable, he said. The power was back on across most of the islands Monday morning. "The Big Island is practically all up. Maui is all up. Kauai didn't sustain any damage as far as we can tell; their power has always been on," Rod Haraga of the Hawaii Department of Transportation said on CBS News' The Early Show. "The big problem is in Oahu, where we have 800,000 population." The power grid there has only been restored 50 percent, he said. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/15/national/main2090117.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2090117

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday invited the Lebanese prime minister to begin peace talks following Israel's recent war against Hezbollah guerrillas, but Olmert ruled out peace talks with Syria at the present time, saying President Bashar Assad isn't a suitable negotiating partner.Olmert said Assad must halt its support for Palestinian militant groups before the two nations can hold peace talks and dismissed the Syrian leader's calls for negotiations as a "negotiating tactic." Syria hosts the top leaders of Hamas, the ruling Palestinian political party, which is committed to Israel's destruction.Olmert said that Israel made significant gains in its battle against the Lebanese guerrilla group. Olmert has been heavily criticized for his handling of the war, in which Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel....http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/16/ap/world/mainD8KPPMIO1.shtml

Australia is to ban North Korean ships from entering its ports in response to its claimed nuclear bomb test, the foreign minister has announced. Alexander Downer told Parliament the move would help Australia make a "quite clear contribution" to other sanctions agreed by the UN on Saturday. The move came as US envoy Christopher Hill arrived in Tokyo for talks on how to enforce the sanctions. The UN resolution imposes both weapons and financial sanctions on the North. But despite the unanimous vote, disagreements have emerged between the members of the council. Beijing has indicated that it still has reservations about carrying out the extensive cargo inspections that Washington says are called for in the resolution. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6054186.stm

An analysis of air samples collected shortly after North Korea declared it had conducted an underground nuclear explosion confirms the test took place, according to the office of the U.S. director of national intelligence. The analysis detected radioactive debris, indicating the explosive yield was less than one kiloton, said a statement from John Negroponte's office. That is relatively small for a nuclear test. The first air sample collected after Pyongyang's announcement last week contained no radioactive debris, but a second one did, as CNN reported Friday. Officials wanted to do more analysis before confirming the North Korean test. Sources said a nuclear facility in Russia is near the North Korean border, and analysts wanted to rule it out as the source of the radioactive debris. The development came as a senior U.S. official said Monday that China apparently is inspecting trucks on its border bound for North Korea despite ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/16/nkorea.sanctions/index.html?section=cnn_world